


Witching Hour

by NightFlare13



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Awkward Flirting, Cheating, F/M, Fiveya Week, Fluff, Late Night Conversations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 17:48:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20429978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightFlare13/pseuds/NightFlare13
Summary: Day 2 of Fiveya week - No Powers AU. Vanya's working the night shift in McDonald's, and Five needs some coffee after being cheated on. Shy flirting ensues.





	Witching Hour

Day Two – No Powers

When the man comes storming into McDonald’s, Vanya’s half asleep on the counter. She’s been left with the night shift, again, and though it’s normally an uneventful shift, she can’t just nap on the counter or she could lose her job.

She probably looks like death, her hair’s fallen from its ponytail and she just combed her fingers through it and left it down her back, and god knows how her make-up is looking at this hour. She straightens up, putting on her fake smile for the customer.

“What can I ge-“ she starts, trying to not sound half asleep.

“A black coffee please.” He interrupts, hardly making eye contact with her.

“Large or regular?”

“Large.”

Vanya takes a moment to look at the guy. She always does when people walk into a McDonald’s at three in the morning, out of fear alone. She’s the only one running the night shift tonight, which does instil some worry. If he started to assault her, she’d be utterly defenceless.

He completely belittles her, a solid 6’5, maybe 6’6, dressed in a crisp black suit and tie. His dark brown hair is tousled all over the place but he’s trying to comb it through and straighten it out. His posture is dead set, straight up, matching the sharp cut of his gaze. To be honest, all of him is sharp, his jaw, chin, nose. Yeah, Vanya, time to stop staring now, she tells herself.

She manages to make his coffee without passing out on the deck, the six hours of sleep from last night barely keeping her standing.

She’s going to walk over to hand it to him, but he comes over and takes it from her hand, probably seeing just how exhausted she is. He doesn’t walk out, like she assumed he would, and instead sits on one of the white stools across from the kitchen. She mentally curses. Great, another random creepy guy who’s going to try and hit on her. Just what she needed tonight.

“Been left on night shift?” he asks with a smirk and a knowing eyebrow.

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting it, so I didn’t rest up enough. I’ve been here since lunch yesterday.” She chuckles at how tired she sounds.

“Yeah, I’ve been there. Can I get you anything?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Vanya laughs, counting her time before the weird comments start.

“You look exhausted, can I buy you a coffee or something?” he asks, taking Vanya aback. He’s offering to buy her coffee? He must see her confusion, adding, “I promise I won’t try and put anything in it.” He says with that same smirk again. What the hell, Vanya reasons.

“Are you sure?” she starts, but he just hands her a five-dollar bill.

“Make yourself some coffee, Vanya.” He says with a nod towards her name tag and yet another smirk. When was the last time an attractive guy in her age range was this nice to her? Must be years ago.

“Thank you,” she says softly as their fingers brush when she takes the five dollars.

“It’s nothing,” he responds. It actually is something, really, he didn’t have to get her a coffee. He’s still drinking his when she starts sipping at her own. It’s too hot, really, and she should blow on it or something, but she takes a huge gulp anyway with how much she needs some caffeine.

“Thank you,” she repeats, smiling at him for real this time as she winces at the burning in her throat. “What brings you in?” she asks, genuinely curious. She’s never gone to anywhere at three AM, other than a few clubs and parties Allison and Klaus dragged her to.

“I’m just really stressed. It’s finals week, and I went back to my girlfriend’s apartment tonight, and she…she was in bed with another guy. So, I guess I needed to take a walk.” He has genuine upset in his face as he recounts, but mostly anger.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. What a bitch.” She says, stepping around the counter to where he is. “Can I sit? My legs are getting really sore.” She sets the coffee on the table as he nods, lowering herself into the seat, trying to look at least a little less clumsy than she actually is.

“How long have you been with her?” Vanya asks slowly, trying not to come off as nosey or prying. The man sighs again.

“About a year. A little more. I should’ve seen it coming, really.” He says, looking down into his coffee.

“I was with a guy for almost two years, and I found him cheating. We had an apartment and a cat and everything, and I really thought I loved him, but…he was in it for my father’s money, not me. I suppose it’s best I didn’t see the cheating, I just found out about it from a friend. It really hurt my self-esteem, to be honest.” The man looks up at her with gratitude in his eyes. She hasn’t thought about Leonard in the years since they broke up, let alone talk about it, but she’s glad she has now.

“Like you think you aren’t good enough?” he says softly.

“Exactly.”

“I don’t think I loved her. She was always complaining, about how I spent too much time studying and how I didn’t know how to have fun.” The guy laughs cynically.

“Oh, was her definition of fun getting wasted out of her mind and throwing up in Ubers at 4AM?” Vanya groans.

“How did you know?” the man chuckles, looking up at her with a slight curiosity in his smile.

“Lucky guess? I guess I’m good at reading people. Can I ask your name?”

“It’s Five. Yeah, a number for a name.”

“Eh, it’s better than Vanya. It’s actually Ivan, but that’s a male name, so my Dad changed it to Vanya. Russian.”

“You’re Russian?” Five questions.

“No, I was just born there. Well, my mother lived there at the time. I never met her, but I suppose she wanted the Russian name.” Vanya explains, cringing at the mention of her mother.

“I never met my Mom either.” Five says softly.

“She gave me up the day I was born. I think she sold me, actually, but whatever. My Dad isn’t even my birth father, just a rich asshole who makes me feel like shit all the time,” Vanya scowls into her cup.

“I don’t remember mine. They died before my fourth birthday,” Five whispers, the hurt in his voice evident. Vanya immediately reaches her arm around in a side hug.

“I’m so sorry…I shouldn’t have said anything-“ Vanya says, looking Five in the eyes when he looks at her with a watery smile.

“It’s nice, talking about it.” He says, surprising her. She pulls her arm back, blushing a little.

“What’s your major? In college?” Vanya asks, smiling a little more.

“Physics and mathematical science. What?” he laughs at Vanya’s grimace.

“Always my worst. I got a D and a C in those. I was more into creative subjects, music, art, that kind of thing.” She laughs at the memory.

“I hated them in high school. They kept bringing down my GPA.” He smiles.

Vanya smiles back. She’s probably blushing right now, looking like a complete dork. She already thought she looked ridiculous, and suddenly she’s aware of how her bangs need trimming. She probably looks so stupid. They kind of look at each other for a moment, before the smirk and gleam in his eyes start making her panties wet and she hurries up.

“I should get back to the counter, the cameras will think I’ve just left. Is there anything else I can get you?” she asks with a smile, running a hand through her messy bangs.

“Your number would be great,” he says casually. Vanya pauses, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth, as she exhales slowly.

“Uh, this isn’t…a rebound thing, right?” she says shakily.

“No. I just thought you’d like to go for another coffee sometime? It’s fine if you don’t.”

She’s a little taken aback, honestly, but now she’s thinking about it…she’s a little sick of being single. And he’s nice. And if he managed to get her this worked up with a _smirk, _maybe it wouldn’t hurt. So, Vanya scribbles her number onto the back of his receipt and hands it over.

She’s already counting down the minutes until he calls or texts her the moment that he’s out the door.

* * *

Five doesn’t really want to leave her in that McDonald’s alone. They probably have some kind of panic button, but it would’ve took him seconds to attack her, and what’s to say someone else doesn’t come in after he’s gone while she’s all alone in there and do something like that?

Five didn’t want to talk tonight. He wanted to go in, get a coffee, sit in a booth and probably wallow in his own misery for a while.

He didn’t know Sara was cheating, but he had a hunch. They weren’t speaking lately, she kept ringing him less and less and when she did call, she’d be either drunk at a party or yelling at him. It wasn’t working out at all, and he likely would’ve ended it after finals week anyway, but he didn’t expect to feel so purely _shit _after he caught her.

He’s never really given much of a damn about people’s opinions of him. It didn’t seem to matter, he was confident in himself and didn’t have a lot of insecurities, but then as he walked through the streets he didn’t know why he felt so utterly awful.

Was he really that bad of a boyfriend? Or was she just out of his league anyway and she thought it was funny stringing him along like that? Was he just not attractive or boring or whatever else his mind was supplying?

Either way, he felt like shit and he just wanted to sit alone in McDonald’s at three AM, but then he saw the clearly exhausted young woman at the counter, with long brown hair and bangs a little messy and outgrown. He couldn’t help but pity her – he’d had night shifts before at some of his old jobs and he knew it sucked.

He didn’t intend on opening up to her, spilling his guts like that. Sure, she was cute, no, the voice in the back of his head reasoned, effortlessly pretty, hot, even, but he didn’t know her. He knew her first name, Vanya, from a name tag, but other than that she was a complete stranger and he just told her everything.

She could’ve just given an awkward smile and a nod and left it at that, but then she told him about her break up, her parents. And he felt less alone, less angry, less self-critical. More attracted and in awe than anything.

Yeah, a coffee with Vanya was casual. She was shy, obviously, about it, but it didn’t have to be a date if she didn’t want it to. It didn’t have to be a date anywhere other than in the back of his head.

* * *

“Yeah, uh, eleven is fine. I’m free all day.” Vanya says while she paces across the living room, biting the nails of her free hand nonchalantly.

She doesn’t even notice Allison giving her a raised eyebrow and looking at the phone intently, mouthing “PUT IT ON SPEAKER!” at her, to which Vanya ignores.

“Do you want to meet there, or do you want me to pick you up?” Five asks, making Vanya smile a little wider.

“Well, um, I share a car with my sister, and she’s going out later, so-“ she starts.

“I’ll pick you up at eleven. See you then,”

“See you then. Bye,” she hangs up with a smile. The moment she clicks the phone off she’s squealing and jumping up and down like a little child in the rain.

“So…who’s the guy?” Allison asks with a cheeky smile.

“Uh, his name’s Five. We’re going out for coffee, so I need to get ready-“ she starts, rushing off into her room.

After much debate from Allison, she settles for a loose white jumper and her skinny jeans, a pair of small brown flats to match her bag.

She feels like a loser to be waiting almost twenty minutes early, but true to his word, he’s there at eleven. Allison gives her a thumbs up as they pull away. Vanya’s never felt so giddy.


End file.
